Hagel and the Jews

[Draggingtree]

The New York Sun:

 

Hagel and the Jews

Editorial of The New York Sun | January 7, 2013

 

A friend and admirer of Senator Hagel called the other day to ask whether we’d ever met the nominee to be secretary of defense. We expressed our regrets that we hadn’t. Our friend wanted us to know that Mr. Hagel does not dislike the Jews. We said we were delighted to hear it, but we also tried to convey that the Sun doesn’t care one way or another whether Mr. Hagel likes the Jews. His private views are not what we care about. What we care about is the policy line to which Mr. Hagel would hew were he to get a chance to run the defense department and advise the President.

We’ve written before about this question of private prejudice. Harry Truman didn’t like the Jews. He didn’t like African Americans or the Chinese or Japanese either.

By what deep principles is Senator Hagel guided in his long years of hanging back from anything that could be construed as helpful to the Jewish state or unhelpful to her enemies? He’s made no life’s work of sound money. He’s made no life’s work of constitutional fundamentals. We can’t think of a single over-riding principle in his career, save for an abiding sneer at Israel, in which he seems to take a certain mischievous glee.